This invention relates to television advertising, and, more particularly, to techniques for advertising television networks, channels, and programs.
The practice of advertising television networks, channels, and programs has become widespread. For example, an advertisement for a network or channel may promote the network or channel generally or a particular line-up of television programs on that network or channel. Similarly, an advertisement for a television program may promote the program generally or a particular episode or particular episodes of that program.
Advertisements for television networks, channels, and programs have been delivered to television viewers in a variety of ways. For example, advertisements have been delivered by using standard television commercial time slots in television programs to present the advertisements to television viewers. The advertisements delivered in such standard television commercial time slots for television networks and channels have been delivered on both the same and different networks and channels from those being advertised. Similarly, the advertisements for television programs delivered in standard television commercial time slots have been delivered during both the same and different television programs from those being advertised.
As another example, barker television screens have also been used to present advertisements to television viewers over channels that are otherwise unused by television systems. The advertisements delivered on such barker television screens have been presented in a variety of formats including full motion video (including audio), still images, graphics, and text.
As yet another example, passive program guides that provide television program information to television viewers on dedicated television channels have been used to present advertisements. More recently, interactive television program guides have been developed that are similarly capable of delivering advertising for various types of programming. The advertisements delivered by such passive and interactive program guides have been presented in a variety of formats including full motion video (including audio), still images, graphics, and text.
A problem with television advertising is that in certain circumstances the advertisement for a network, channel, or program may be wasted if the network, channel, or program is unavailable to or undesired by a television viewer. For example, an advertisement presented to a viewer of a news channel for a comedy channel may be wasted if the comedy channel is unavailable to the viewer. As another example, an advertisement for an adult television channel may be wasted when presented to a television viewer who has opted to block out the programming available on the adult television channel in the viewer's home.
As yet another example, an advertisement for a program on a network may be wasted if the local affiliate for that network has chosen not to present the advertised program. As still another example, where a channel on a television system is split by the system operator between a first programming provider during one portion of the day and a second programming provider during another portion of the day, an advertisement for a program provided by the first programming provider may be wasted if the program is to be aired during the second programming provider's portion of the day. As a further example, where a channel produced by a programming provider is affiliated with a first network during one portion of the day and a second network during another portion of the day, an advertisement for a program on the first network may be wasted if the program is to be aired during the second network's portion of the day.
Rather than wasting an advertising opportunity by presenting an advertisement for a network, channel, or program that is unavailable to or undesired by a television viewer, it may be preferred to present an advertisement for a network, channel, or program that is available to or desired by a television viewer, or some other advertisement.
A problem associated with providing television advertising in program guides is that in order to present an advertisement for a network or a program to be aired on a network, a separate copy of the advertisement for each of the affiliates of the network must be broadcast to the television systems in which the advertisement is to be aired. This repetitive broadcasting must be performed so that each television system receives a copy of the advertisement that is associated with the affiliate of the advertised network carried by the television system. Because the size of typical advertisements that contain graphics may be on the order of several kilobytes, however, broadcasting a separate copy of the advertisement for each affiliate of large networks may be inefficient. For example, for a program guide advertisement having a size of six kilobytes that is to be advertised in association with a network having three hundred affiliates, the broadcasting of that advertisement alone would require the broadcasting of one thousand, eight hundred kilobytes of data.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide systems and methods for advertising television networks, channels, and programs that prevent advertisements from being displayed for networks, channels, and programs that are unavailable to television viewers.
It is also an object of the invention to provide systems and methods for advertising television networks, channels, and programs that prevent advertisements from being displayed for networks, channels, and programs that are undesired by television viewers.
It is a further object of the invention to provide systems and methods for advertising television networks, channels, and programs that prevent advertisements of network programs from being displayed when those programs are not aired by the local affiliates of the corresponding networks.
It is a yet further object of the invention to provide systems and methods for advertising television networks, channels, and programs that prevent advertisements of programs from being displayed when those programs are to be aired during a portion of the day when the program provider or network associated with the program is not available to television viewers.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide systems and methods for advertising television networks, channels, and programs that do not require the repetitive broadcasting, for each affiliate of a network, of advertisements for that network, or a program to be aired on that network, to those television systems carrying the advertisements.